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...kijk opThe Royal Canadian Air Force has quietly turned to an unusual source for spare parts to keep its venerable search-and-rescue airplanes flying: a museum.
The Citizen has learned that, in July 2012, air force technicians raided an old Hercules airplane that is on display at the National Air Force Museum of Canada because they needed navigational equipment for a similar aircraft still in use.
The revelation highlights the difficulties military personnel have increasingly faced in keeping Canada’s ancient search-and-rescue planes flying after more than a decade of government promises to buy replacements — with no end in sight.
Museum curator Kevin Windsor said classified equipment is typically taken off the display aircraft, but otherwise the museum tries to keep the aircraft as close to operational as possible to give visitors an authentic experience.
It was during his Windsor’s second week on the job that the search-and-rescue squadron at CFB Trenton contacted the museum’s executive director, retired lieutenant-colonel Chris Colton, to see if they could go through the Hercules.
In particular, Windsor said, they were looking for two inertial navigation units that they could take from the museum’s airplane and install in one of their H-model Hercules, which range in age from 20 to 40 years.
“They sort of called (Colton) up and said ‘Hey, we have these two INUs that we can’t use.
Do you have any on yours?’ ” Windsor said.
“Some of the parts are interchangeable.
They just kind of got lucky on that.”
Auditor General Michael Ferguson raised concerns last spring that the federal government’s search-and-rescue capabilities are in danger of crumbling,
in part because the air force’s eight Hercules and six Buffaloes are on their last wings.
The airplanes are used to respond to thousands of emergencies across the country every year.
Defence Department officials were also told in a secret briefing last year that the military had been forced to
“purchase spare parts from around the world”
to ensure the “continued airworthiness” of the air force’s 47-year-old Buffalo airplanes.
Defence Minister Rob Nicholson’s office defended the air force’s decision to ask a museum for parts to keep its search-and-rescue planes flying.
“The RCAF took the initiative to remove these functional, perfectly good parts and use them effectively,”
spokeswoman Johanna Quinney said in an email.
“It was a sound decision, helping to ensure the long-term viability of the aircraft.”
But former head of military procurement Dan Ross said it’s “embarrassing” that the air force has to “cannibalize old stuff that’s in museums” to keep its planes flying.
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